Music of Melbourne

A Music Victoria study finds Melbourne hosts 62,000 live concerts annually, making it one of the live music capitals of the world.[1]Victoria is host to more than three times the live performance national average, making it the live music capital of the country. Melbourne is host to more music venues per capita than Austin, Texas.[2]

The Esplanade Hotel, built in 1878, one of the earliest, largest and most prominent 19th century resort hotels in Victoria, has served as a venue for various styles through the 20th century. Between 1920 and 1925, the "Eastern Tent Ballroom" constructed to the rear of the site became an important jazz venue and dance venue in St Kilda, one of the main entertainment districts in Melbourne at the time. In the 1970s, the Hotel's Gershwin Room, a grand dining room, was turned into a disco, complete with flashing Saturday Night Fever-style dance floor. Since the 1970s, it has hosted primarily rock-related acts and is currently the longest continuously running live music venue in Australia.[3]

Melbourne has one of the most extensive and successful alternative, DIY, avant-garde, experimental, independent music scenes in the world. A variety of factors including a relative abundance of venues, independent record labels, street press, and strong support from local community radio (such as PBS, 3RRR, 3CR, 3SYN), have enabled the city to enjoy a depth, diversity and longevity of independent music not seen in other Australian cities. Melbourne's independent music industry has been the subject of two documentary films, Sticky Carpet in 2006 and the DIY film Super8 Diaries Project in 2008. Some of the most important and influential alternative artists emerged from Melbourne in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Post-punk band The Birthday Party are one of "the darkest and most challenging post-punk groups to emerge in the early '80s." One act from Melbourne, Dead Can Dance, a duo, mixed Dark Wave with classical music, thus founding the genre Neoclassical Dark Wave. Other notable independent artists from Melbourne include: Cut Copy, The Drones, TISM, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Rowland S. Howard, Dirty Three, The Avalanches and The Great Elevator.[6]

Many musical acts have written music with their origins, suburbs or Melbourne in general as their subject matter. Singer Paul Kelly wrote several well-known songs about aspects of the city close to the heart of many Melburnians, notably "Leaps and Bounds" and "From St Kilda to King's Cross", while bands like Australian Crawl and Skyhooks wrote some more tongue-in-cheek songs about Melbourne; "Balwyn Calling", "Carlton (Lygon Street Limbo)" and "Toorak Cowboy" are examples. The Living End wrote a song entitled "West End Riot" about differences between eastern and western suburbs in Melbourne's inner city.